It was Young’s first Premier League appearance of the season and Mourinho was impressed with the desire the 31-year-old showed to succeed.
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It was the first time United had lost to Watford in 30 years and the first occasion Mourinho had been beaten in three consecutive matches since 2002 when he was in charge at Porto. “And we lost again in our best moment”.
He was also upset with the referee’s decision to not penalise Miguel Britos’ when the Watford defender made a tough challenge against Anthony Martial before Etienne Capoue scored the opening goal for the hosts.
“The third thing is what is in my hands, improvement of the team and the individuals”.
After claiming bad luck as the second factor in the Watford defeat, Mourinho conceded it was defensive mistakes from his own players that led to Watford’s second goal. It is tactical but also mental.
Manchester United’s Wayne Rooney walks from the pitch past the Watford team mascot “Harry the Hornet” after losing the English Premier League soccer match between Watford and Manchester United at Vicarage Road in London, Sunday.
Scholes was concerned by how often Watford opened up United’s defence, adding: “I expected them to be a lot tighter defensively, especially with bringing Chris Smalling in, but they were all over the place and every time a ball came into the box you felt Watford were going to score”.
“And here for the second goal, Amrabat receives the ball and our left-back is 25 metres from him instead of five metres. But then we made the changes and everything went the right way”.
“You don’t ask me about that if you think that nothing happened”, Mourinho said. It’s something that doesn’t become ideal in a couple of weeks.
The visitors took control from that point and only a tremendous stop from Heurelho Gomes prevented Ibrahimovic heading home Marouane Fellaini’s cross with 12 minutes remaining.
However, that would not prevent United from following up defeats to Manchester City and Feyenoord with another loss, Zuniga capping a great team move just moments after coming on and Deeney putting the icing on the cake from the spot. We know the midfielders arrive like the first goal from behind so there is another individual mistake.
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Martial required medical treatment following a clash of heads with Watford’s Daryl Janmaat after 26 minutes. “So we were punished by these mistakes and I can’t do anything about it”.
